143 replies to this topic

[Ryan Steel]

Any of you guys remember the venerable Villz-Steel Mechworks Atlas K? It was our masterpiece.

"THE ATLAS K IS HERE!"
"THE K!"
"ATLAS K GET PUSHED IN BY PUSH MECH!"
"ALL HAIL THE ATLAS K!"

The those of you who never encountered the Villz-Steel Atlas K, it was the ultimate area-of-denial push mech. The loadout was the following: STD 300, 2 PPC, Gauss, LRM 20+ Arty, Tag, 2 AMS, BAP, and front loaded armor. This mech was unrelenting in the right hands and worked best especially well in pairs or more. A beginner obviously would have trouble in any mech and wouldn't be able to squeeze out the potential of the K, but they'd have massive survivability potential with it which would give them a greater opportunity to learn the game mechanics.

The genius of the mech (at the time) was due to the following:

1. The mech could tank massive amounts of incoming fire and damage due to having tons of armor and the twin AMS. This mech was the pinnacle of a front line push mech.

2. This mech made the enemy run very hot. The twin AMS could take down multiple LRM volleys, and having a second or thrid Atlas K around simply made them impervious to LRM fire. The opposing LRM boats would end up wasting ammo and running very hot, whilst the Atlas Ks protected themselves and the rest of the team from LRM fire. The high armor of the K combined with rolling damage would have the enemy working hard, even if they were focus firing, to take the Ks down. By the time our team closed in, the whole enemy team was undoutedly at 95% heat +.

3. This mech combined direct fire with LRMs, a rather potent combo. The LRM lock-on time was sped up with modules, tag and bap. The single volley of LRM 20 wasn't overwhelming, but it certainly got the enemy to run to cover whilst the tag and advanced target decay allowed us to continually fire behind cover. When they popped out, they got simultaneously smacked in the face with a 35 point alpha and rained on by LRM 20s. This mech could pinpoint smack and suppress all at the same time.

4. The mech was versatile. It wasn't an OMGROFL brawler but it could hold its own at most ranges and excel in the right hands during that balance period (PPCs could still damage at under 90 meters). You could still brawl with it if you were forced into one.


The greatest feat I think we ever accomplished was when we were doing a DV8 12 man and 3 of us were using Atlas Ks. Villz, Rippthrough and I. We went up against some other Russian tryhard 12 man team and was an excellent opportunity to put these mechs to the test. The match was on Alpine and the Russians spawned at the high level and formed a firing line around tryhard hill with PPC Stalkers. The 3 of us pushed them hard, walking up in the open and by the time our whole team pushed, Villz and Rippthrough were killed and I was left with 1 PPC. The enemy was completely ruined. Most of them were dead or badly damaged and the rest of our team picked up the scraps. Basically Villz and Rippthrough were able to flak a full firing line of alpha mechs and dish out massive amounts of damage at the same time. 3 Mechs vs an entire team. The Atlas K.

Obviously newbs wouldn't have been able to squeeze out the offensive potential of this mech, but their survivability would be high, even if they didn't know how to roll damage. I think the build would run too hot with the current patches so maybe ER large lasers would be preferable. Villz and I could run some tests.

All i know is that without Adrian Steel to guide me, I would have been clueless when I first started. He played all the mechwarrior games and I knew nothing about the franchise. Even with him as a guide, I was still pretty clueless and he was an excellent mentor. If he stuck me in an XL mech at the very beginning, things would have been a lot uglier than they were in the first few days of play.

Survivability for newbs is important.


LORD STEEL
ggclose

[Nick Makiaveli]

YueFei, on 11 February 2014 - 09:50 PM, said:

When the first portion of a learning curve is too steep, people will give up and go on to other things.

There's a reason we teach children addition and subtraction before moving on to teaching them multiplication and division.

MWO needs a single player campaign that acts as a tutorial, ala Freespace 2. Each new mission introduces a few new concepts that build upon the foundation laid by previous missions, and provides numerous opportunities to apply the new concepts. At the end of completing the single-player campaign, a cadet should be rewarded with a decent wad of C-bills to start with to buy his first mech.

There is a basic tutorial that shows them the basics. There are the testing grounds. There is a Cadet bonus. Does that equal a SP campaign? No but if you are willing to actually put in some work, learn from your mistakes and generally not expect to be spoon fed then guess what? Anyone can learn this game.

I am not trying to sound like some FFA PvP as what but too many people come here expecting to b coddled and this ain't your baby brother's shooter.

Yes better tutorial would lead to better retention but guess what? PGI is obviously happy with the numbers or else they would be doing something more to combat it. Of course they are doing much better with communication and with luck (and UI 2.0) things will continue to improve.

[Villz]

Ryan Steel, on 12 February 2014 - 05:56 AM, said:

Any of you guys remember the venerable Villz-Steel Mechworks Atlas K? It was our masterpiece.

"THE ATLAS K IS HERE!"
"THE K!"
"ATLAS K GET PUSHED IN BY PUSH MECH!"
"ALL HAIL THE ATLAS K!"

The those of you who never encountered the Villz-Steel Atlas K, it was the ultimate area-of-denial push mech. The loadout was the following: STD 300, 2 PPC, Gauss, LRM 20+ Arty, Tag, 2 AMS, BAP, and front loaded armor. This mech was unrelenting in the right hands and worked best especially well in pairs or more. A beginner obviously would have trouble in any mech and wouldn't be able to squeeze out the potential of the K, but they'd have massive survivability potential with it which would give them a greater opportunity to learn the game mechanics.

The genius of the mech (at the time) was due to the following:

1. The mech could tank massive amounts of incoming fire and damage due to having tons of armor and the twin AMS. This mech was the pinnacle of a front line push mech.

2. This mech made the enemy run very hot. The twin AMS could take down multiple LRM volleys, and having a second or thrid Atlas K around simply made them impervious to LRM fire. The opposing LRM boats would end up wasting ammo and running very hot, whilst the Atlas Ks protected themselves and the rest of the team from LRM fire. The high armor of the K combined with rolling damage would have the enemy working hard, even if they were focus firing, to take the Ks down. By the time our team closed in, the whole enemy team was undoutedly at 95% heat +.

3. This mech combined direct fire with LRMs, a rather potent combo. The LRM lock-on time was sped up with modules, tag and bap. The single volley of LRM 20 wasn't overwhelming, but it certainly got the enemy to run to cover whilst the tag and advanced target decay allowed us to continually fire behind cover. When they popped out, they got simultaneously smacked in the face with a 35 point alpha and rained on by LRM 20s. This mech could pinpoint smack and suppress all at the same time.

4. The mech was versatile. It wasn't an OMGROFL brawler but it could hold its own at most ranges and excel in the right hands during that balance period (PPCs could still damage at under 90 meters). You could still brawl with it if you were forced into one.


The greatest feat I think we ever accomplished was when we were doing a DV8 12 man and 3 of us were using Atlas Ks. Villz, Rippthrough and I. We went up against some other Russian tryhard 12 man team and was an excellent opportunity to put these mechs to the test. The match was on Alpine and the Russians spawned at the high level and formed a firing line around tryhard hill with PPC Stalkers. The 3 of us pushed them hard, walking up in the open and by the time our whole team pushed, Villz and Rippthrough were killed and I was left with 1 PPC. The enemy was completely ruined. Most of them were dead or badly damaged and the rest of our team picked up the scraps. Basically Villz and Rippthrough were able to flak a full firing line of alpha mechs and dish out massive amounts of damage at the same time. 3 Mechs vs an entire team. The Atlas K.

Obviously newbs wouldn't have been able to squeeze out the offensive potential of this mech, but their survivability would be high, even if they didn't know how to roll damage. I think the build would run too hot with the current patches so maybe ER large lasers would be preferable. Villz and I could run some tests.

All i know is that without Adrian Steel to guide me, I would have been clueless when I first started. He played all the mechwarrior games and I knew nothing about the franchise. Even with him as a guide, I was still pretty clueless and he was an excellent mentor. If he stuck me in an XL mech at the very beginning, things would have been a lot uglier than they were in the first few days of play.

Survivability for newbs is important.


LORD STEEL
ggclose

Any1 who played with dv8 remembers that mech

I also remember 4 v 8ing quite a few times with them

[YueFei]

Nick Makiaveli, on 12 February 2014 - 06:05 AM, said:

There is a basic tutorial that shows them the basics. There are the testing grounds. There is a Cadet bonus. Does that equal a SP campaign? No but if you are willing to actually put in some work, learn from your mistakes and generally not expect to be spoon fed then guess what? Anyone can learn this game.

I am not trying to sound like some FFA PvP as what but too many people come here expecting to b coddled and this ain't your baby brother's shooter.

Yes better tutorial would lead to better retention but guess what? PGI is obviously happy with the numbers or else they would be doing something more to combat it. Of course they are doing much better with communication and with luck (and UI 2.0) things will continue to improve.

The tutorial in MWO has very little to do with teaching people how to play this game. Does doing PvE in World of Warcraft make you a capable PvPer? No, because the PvE monsters are braindead and don't behave at all like human opponents.

Play through the first few missions of the Freespace 2 campaign. THAT actually does teach you how to fight, and is a good preparation to face live human opponents. And that was a game made 15 years ago.

Edited by YueFei, 12 February 2014 - 08:51 PM.